...foster a lifetime relationship

Within the context of stewardship, a personally addressed, handwritten thank you card says we value you as a donor far more than a generic, printed letter and so – resource allowing – stewardship should always be as personal as possible. For major donors, there is nothing that you can buy them that they cannot buy a better version of for themselves, and in many cases they do not want the school to be wasting their donation, on thanking them in a substantive way. But being thoughtful costs nothing!

Laura says:

“At Bolton School, we look for opportunities to personalise our stewardship whenever we can, from sending birthday cards to acknowledge a donor’s special ‘zero’ birthday to congratulations cards when someone has got married or had a baby.

“At The Perse School, after we had built the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre, we invited those donors who contributed to the campaign to see a performance in our new theatre. Having shown an interest in performing arts, what better way to recognise their generosity than to see the theatre in action, to see the impact of their donation?” – Erin

“Stewardship requires thought and effort: an original copy of a photo from the school archive bringing back a happy memory for a donor, a jar of Bolton School honey or a copy of the commemorative newspaper marking Bolton Wanderers’ promotion sent to a team fan living far away. These all take a little time to arrange but cost very little.”

Say thank you more than once

If we see stewardship as part of a lifelong journey, then it goes without saying that you should say thank you more than once. With effective stewardship, F a one-time donor can become a regular donor, a regular donor can become a major donor, a major donor can become a legacy donor. It’s important to think about where a donor is now, and where you want them to be; stewardship will be critical in moving them along their donor journey.

Erin says:

“Consider a number of touchpoints with your donors throughout the year and make sure you contact them in different ways – don’t just wait for that annual impact report. Taking a multichannel approach to saying thank you will ensure your donors feel valued in whatever way they prefer. For example, alongside more traditional methods of saying thank you such as a hand-written card or personal call, at The Perse, we sent out personalised postcards to all of our donors, with a QR code that links to a short video clip from the Head thanking them for their donation and sharing with them how they are making a difference. Our aim is to build stewardship into every action we take.”

Stewardship takes resource, planning and good data

Whilst stewardship itself doesn’t have to be expensive, effective stewardship does take time and staff resource to do well. Spending time on stewardship (rather than potentially asking for money) can be challenging to justify to school leaders. However, it is important to consider this in relation to the time and cost of recruiting new donors. Getting someone to give for the first time can be equally, if not more, resource-heavy given the need to develop that relationship to the point of making an ask. If we instead concentrate our time on stewarding the donor who is giving £10 a month, who’s to say they won’t increase their monthly donation to £20 a month, or decide to leave a legacy in the future? We need to think about the lifetime value of our donors, not just the here and now.

It’s also important to be realistic about the resource you have available. In an ideal world, the Head would sign 5,000 Christmas cards personally to send to all your donors, but does he or she have the time to do this? Consider how you can personalise your approach with the resource you have available and use your systems to support you to achieve this.

Laura says:

“We have built our entire fundraising structures around stewardship, but none of this would be possible without being organised in our approach. For example, we create template thank you letters annually for different segments of our database, each with a section to be personalised; we set up database queries to remind us of birthdays and giving anniversaries; I diarise time to make calls to say thank you. We cannot do individual stewardship plans for every donor, but through careful planning, we are still able to personalise our approach.”

Record-keeping

Keeping a record of your relationships is key. We can only personalise a thank you letter or card if we get to know our donors and therefore recording the detail of these relationships is essential.

Erin says:

“To build relationships with our donors, we need to not only know who they are, but to get to know them. Recording the conversation the Head had with a donor at the last reunion, or information shared about the progress a donor’s child is making, helps us to build a picture of each individual donor and to draw upon this information when we say thank you. Also, by recording this detail it means the relationship remains with the institution and not the individual – we don’t want a donor having a new conversation every time there is a new member of staff in the development office.”

Saying thank you is fundamental to fundraising. Donors want to know their donations have made a difference. Equally, if they feel valued, donors will not only share their experience with others, but are also likely to give again … and again.

How will you say thank you? ●